A Date in 2025

In the year 2025, ​a young man’s superintelligent AI system tells him that he must go on a date or face certain suicide from loneliness.

When Daniel’s superintelligent AI, ‘Counselor’ (Siri on steroids), finds out that he’s been dreaming about one of the girls in his virtua-class, Counselor persuades him to ask her out on a date the only way she knows how: by convincing him that if he doesn’t go he will, according to statistical probabilities, kill himself. It’s a tall order for a guy who hasn’t left his apartment in 42 days and is more than happy to stay at home with his 2025 technology.

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When Matthew Hart first approached me with the script, I immediately resonated with its themes of isolation and the importance of human connection. What resonated with me about “A Date in 2025” was the importance of human interaction. Life in Los Angeles has a tendency to be very isolating, and there is a constant temptation to turn towards technology — whether it be through dating apps or social media. While those platforms are not innately bad, an over-reliance on them can take you away from reality in an unhealthy way. Life is all about balance. I hope people walk away from this film inspired to make the leap away from their pizza shakes and virtua-porn.

The best part of science fiction films is trying to figure out what the future will be like, and although 2025 seems so close, we all know how quickly technology can reinvent itself. Drawing many inspirations from some of our favourite sci-fi films and shows, ‘A Date in 2025‘ draws and interesting balance between the near future and now.

In the buildup to this short being filmed, I visited multiple VR companies and read books like Snowcrash and Ready Player One. I took a lot of inspiration from films such as Her and shows like Black Mirror. I wanted to make a sci fi film that wasn’t all doom and gloom. I wanted it to be fun to watch and optimistic. The comedy would come from the motherly relationship between Counselor and Daniel. I also wanted it to feel grounded and realistic. Writer Matthew Hart and I went back and forth a lot when it came to the world of this short. I felt like 2025 would be very similar to now — people will still be eating pizza and cereal and apartments will look more or less the same. Matt, on the other hand, wanted the short to be more Futurama. Everything should feel different than now, that’s the fun of creating a sci fi movie! Working with Production Designer Tiff Smith, we were able to find a great balance between both. And that’s how the pizza shake was born.